Experts & Staff

Kim Westerich-Fellner

ECFR Alumni · Mercator Visiting Fellow

Areas of expertise

Nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, European security

Languages

German, English

Biography

Kim Westerich-Fellner is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations under the Mercator Fellowship on International Affairs. Her work focuses on security and defence, with an emphasis on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Before joining ECFR, Westerich-Fellner was a visiting expert at the nuclear safeguards and security division at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany and at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the United States where she focused on verification approaches for nuclear disarmament and the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. She is a member of the New European Voices on Existential Risk initiative of the European Leadership Network.

Westerich-Fellner holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Münster (summa cum laude). She conducted research stays at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the University of Cambridge, and the Max Planck Institute.

Up in arms: European security options for a post-cooperative era

The de facto absence of European arms control regimes has opened political and operational security gaps. NATO and its partner states should strengthen their cross-border expertise and balance stronger deterrence measures with effective restraint